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Jackson Eli

Jackson Eli a Guitar Teacher for Gray School of Music

Jackson Eli is a Dallas-based performing artist who teaches and performs a variety of styles – classical, folk, western swing, pop, rockabilly, blues, rock, hot jazz, and singer/songwriter tunes. As a performer, he is somewhat unique in that he can switch between such genres of classical to blues to western swing seamlessly. His strength is the variety of his repertoire. In high school and throughout college at University of North Texas, he studied guitar with Tom Johnson. Mr. Johnson is the head professor and founder of the classical guitar program at UNT. Jackson’s focus in college was Classical Guitar and Early Childhood Development. Jackson incorporates these skills he learned into his music teaching and performances today. After graduating from UNT, Jackson now teaches in Preston Hollow at Gray School of Music.

Jackson performed in Austin, TX for 7 years, playing the mix of music mentioned above as well as his own original tunes. Over the last few years, he has collaborated with Grammy-winning Gary Clark Jr., Dale Watson, and recorded an album with Milo Deering (multi-instrumentalist for The Eagles). Jackson currently plays guitar in The Bodarks (bluegrass, folk), The Blondettes (rockabilly, motown), and The Jackson Eli trio (swing, blues, rock). As well as a teacher and performer, Jackson is also a studio guitarist. In October, 2017 he played guitar on Matt Grigsby’s album entitled, “Worthy of Love.” Grigsby is one of the two founders of the Denton Songwriters Guild.

Jackson actively performs at corporate functions, country clubs, and weddings. He has played the main stage at The House of Blues, The Rustic, and has been music vendor for Whole Foods Market for the past 5 years.

Jackson released an EP in 2012 called, Heading To The Comal consisting of all original songs that he wrote with his father, Randy Eli Grothe. It is available on iTunes for download. In addition to Heading To The Comal, Jackson has also released 4 other albums independently.
Jackson grew up in East Dallas (Lakewood Heights). He teaches college-level guitar lessons and also teaches kids (6 – 13 years old) how to read music and play by rote. On weekends, he performs primarily in the North Texas area.